He hissed and reached for me, and I recoiled, falling backwards. I heard him shout just before my elbow impacted and something burst hot beneath it. Magic coated my skin as the air filled with fire. It was only for a second, then it was gone, and I could not see.

And I could not breathe.

There was no air. My chest heaved as my lungs dragged in mouthful after mouthful of nothingness. Hands snatched me up, and I was moving, but I didn’t care.

I couldn’t breathe.

I couldn’t breathe.

I couldn’t…

Chapter 42

Cécile

I opened my eyes, blinking away the bits of frost on my lashes, droplets running in cold little rivulets down my cheeks. The night sky loomed above me, vast, unending, and empty. I frowned as I considered the last, the notion of it troubling me with its wrongness. “Where are the stars?”

“We see other worlds in a different way.”

The voice startled me, and I rolled onto my hands and knees, sinking deep into powdery snow that sucked the heat from my hands. I lifted my face. “Where am I?”

Tristan’s many times great-uncle, the King of Summer, smiled at me, but the radiance he’d exuded the first time we met was nowhere to be seen. “You know.”

I did. A blast of wind, icier than was ever felt in my world, raked at my hair. “Winter.”

He nodded once, gesturing outwards. There was no source of illumination that I could see, but everything around glowed with an unearthly and pearlescent light. Massive peaks encircled the barren plain on which we stood, their tips capped with white like a frosted crown. Snowflakes rose instead of fell, dancing upward into the void above, and as I turned my head, my stomach clenched.

Dizziness swept through me as I stared at the palace in the distance, identical to that the Queen had built in Trianon in everything but size. A river of ice flowed through its center, massive burgs rolling and smashing against each other as they traveled. It was the only sign of motion. The only sign of life.

“Why am I here?” I asked.

“Because I once gave you a name.”

I flinched; and, because I was afraid of what he might demand of me, I asked instead, “Why now?”

“The opportunity presented itself.”

No answer. I licked my lips. They were smooth and unchapped beneath my tongue, and my hair hung in a long braid over my shoulder. I tugged at its tip, choosing to focus on this insignificant detail rather than the impossible setting surrounding me.

“You are as you imagine yourself to be,” he said, answering my unspoken question.

“Because it’s a dream,” I mused. “Or am I really here?”

“Much can happen in the space between two heartbeats.” Clasping my arm, he pulled me to my feet. An orb appeared in his hand, and he held it out to me. “Look.”

The orb was warm and moist against my palm, and I cringed as a lid peeled back to reveal an eye. It blinked again, and ignoring my disgust, he guided my hand closer to my face. “Look.”